The Cecil Whig., 1887-06-25
EDUCATION FOR FARMERS.

he late b. Perley POOre, IN one OF
his excellent letters to the -1WCy1taN
Culhsutoy, forcibly suggests the neglect
of proper education for the boys of
farmers who are intended for their
fathers profession. He says there:
agriculture is terribly behind other
pursuits in its literature. Take up the
catalogue of any large publishing house
and you will see books on ancient and
modern history, celebrated travellers,
noted sovereigns, gallant warriors, the
crusades, the Chinese, trade. commerce
and navigation, but very little about
agriculture. The history of this pur-
suit, on which all others depend, the
biographies of prominent farmers, chem
istry, botany or geology, the manage
ment of horses and cattle, and similar
topics, are ignored, instead OF being
blended with others, like brick and
mortar in the walls OF a building, to
give beauty and solidlty to the struc-
ture.
"There is no lack of arguments,
enough to convince any reasonable
man, that the proper study of youth is
the business which is to employ them
in manhood. Thus we give to the law
student elementary books in the busl-
ness which is to constitute his living !;
and to students in divinity and physic
the elementary books suited to their
several professions and we require
four years study in these elementary
works, in order that the student may
fully understand the principles upon
which he is to preach or practice, be-
fore we permit him to put on the toga
of manhood, and to take rank with his
profession. And shall not the student
of agriculture, whose business embraces
a wider range OF useful science than
either of the before mentioned classes,
be permitted, during his minority, to
study the elementary principles Of his
profession? to store his mind with the
precepss and practices of eminent men
in that profession2 | say, lay the foun-
dation in usefulness, in that knowledge
which will tend to make intelligent,
useful and contented farmers and good
citizens of the boys of our common
schools. You may then build whatever
superstructure you please upon this
solid foundation, and em5elish it to
your taste.
II am well aware that many good,
practical farmers will assent that agri-
culture wants no auxiliary aids that it
has done well enough heretofore, with
out the aid of books or of science, and
that it can continue to do so. How
would such remark apply to the other
arts of labor2 Look at the cotton fac
tory, for instance; yard OF cotton
goods may now be purchased for half
the price which was paid for barely
weaving yard thirty years ago. The
manipulatlons in most OF the other arts
have been so abridged by machinery,
and the processes so simpliied by
science, that the fabrics produced by
these labors are greatly lessened in
price. In these arts the Improvements
of the age are speedily registered and
promulgated in books and periodicals,
Mechanics and manufacturers know
how to appreciate this sort of book
knowledge, and it enables them to keep
pace with the improvements of the age.
Not SO our farmers generally. They
have little intercourse with each other,
they have no access to agricultural
books, and many are too old or too
prejudiced to seek for or receive infor-
nation. The consequence is that we
are making slow progress in agricultural
improvement.
"Sixty years ago agricultural news
papers had just begun to make their
appearance on this continent Now,
no nation in the world is so well sup
piled with periodical agricultural read
ing as ours. A bound volume OF this
paper, for example, is in itself a library,
and yet it seems to me that agrlcultur-
lists should have their literature that on
the center table of a farmers house
there should be handsomely bound ag-
ricultural books, and the young people
growing up would estimate the farmers
calling as at least equal, if not superior,
to any other"